


Operation Fruits Basket

by Aerica_Menai



Series: Operation Fanfiction [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: (Neal has sex with Emma after emotionally manipulating her), Asexual Awareness Week, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Dubious Consent, F/M, Gen, aspec!Henry, graysexual!Emma, non-graphic depiction of sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 10:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21117158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerica_Menai/pseuds/Aerica_Menai
Summary: Henry is surprised to be asked to the Sadie Hawkins Valentine's dance - and about the personal revelations that quickly follow. Killian is not as helpful as he had hoped, but when his mom steps in, Henry learns quite a bit about her past and his own possible future.





	Operation Fruits Basket

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Asexual Awareness Week! This was inspired by the Fandom Aspec Challenge's prompt of Trope Inversion: in this case, being asked out to a dance not leading to a revelation of romantic feelings, but rather the lack of them. 
> 
> Beta'd by the amazing @shireness-says - thank you <3
> 
> Title is from the amazing anime series Fruits Basket. The name comes from the heroine’s story of her childhood, feeling like she was a riceball in a fruits basket, out of place and alone – until she found a place that accepted her for who she was. I think Henry would identify a lot with that sentiment (and with Tohru herself, actually) so it feels fitting.

Henry had played matchmaker for his mom and Killian when he was ten, but as anyone at his school or in his family could tell you, he really wasn’t all that interested in romance for himself. His Aunt M was always asking him about cute girls in his class, but his mom always covered for him – “classes are more important anyway, Mary Margaret, leave him alone” – and Killian (who had moved in with Henry and his mom a year ago) only asked a couple times before getting the hint and leaving him alone about it.

Henry had a reputation as a wallflower – not that he didn’t spend plenty of time with his friends, because he did; he just always pulled out a book when the topic of romance or dating came up. It just wasn’t interesting to him, and sometimes he wondered when the rest of his classmates were going to realize that it wasn’t the be-all, end-all of your school experience. 

What he absolutely wasn’t expecting was for Grace to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Valentine’s dance, after he had spent the last couple months ignoring any signs of it coming. He hadn’t quite gone so far as to make plans for that night (which he realized was a massive oversight as he raced to come up with a reason not to go), but it slowly dawned on him that since he didn’t, he had no reason to avoid going. Plus, Grace had asked him, and he couldn’t embarrass her in front of everyone, so he had to say – “Sure, Grace.”

He wasn’t expecting the utter silence that swamped their lunch table after his response. “What?” he asked defensively. He noticed that Nick was handing his dessert to a triumphant Jack, and Ava and Grace were both beaming at him - but Nick and Jack were more important. “Did you two bet on me??” Henry demanded. 

Jack just laughed. “Dude, I knew you were going to say yes! You might not be a fan of Valentine’s Day and all that stuff, but no way you’re going to be able to say no if a girl asked you in person.”

Ava glared at Jack before turning to smile at Henry. “What he meant to say was you’re a gentleman, Henry, and you’re not going to leave a girl hanging if she asks you, which speaks highly of your character.” Henry just smiled shakily back at the girls, ignoring Jack and Nick making faces in the background. If he had done the gentlemanly thing, the right thing, than why did he feel slightly sick at what he had just agreed to?

After school, still uncertain about what he should have done, he decided to consult with Killian. Killian always said that he was a gentleman; maybe he would be able to help Henry figure out why he felt like this.

*~*

Killian quickly agreed to the chess game, glad to spend time with Henry, who was usually more concerned with homework or spending time with friends his own age nowadays than Killian and chess.

They were only about halfway through the game before Killian couldn’t ignore Henry’s fidgeting anymore. “Is there something on your mind, lad?” he asked gently.

Henry squirmed a bit more before capitulating. “Agreeing to go to a dance with a girl who asks you – that’s gentlemanly, right?”

Killian grinned internally. It was about time some lovely lass had shown some appreciation for Henry! But outwardly, he merely replied, “Of course, good for you, lad.”

Henry hesitated, then continued, “And being a gentleman is a good thing, right?”

Killian frowned, not expecting that turn. “Aye, it is.”

Henry buried his head in his hands and mumbled something Killian couldn’t hear. “Gonna have to repeat that for me.”

Henry groaned, dropping his hands and grumbling, “Then why do I feel so lousy about doing it?”

Killian let that sink it for a moment, before asking, “Can you elaborate on that, lad? Do you not like this girl, or –”

“No, no,” Henry interrupted, “I like Grace fine. But…” he trailed off.

Killian tried again. “Is it because you like another girl?”

Henry scoffed. “No, that’s definitely not it.”

Killian hesitated. This was entering murkier and murkier waters. “…Another person? Maybe a boy?”

Henry groaned “No!” before grabbing a pillow and smushing his face into it.

Killian wanted to groan himself, but refrained. He was the adult in the room, as little as he felt it right now. “You’re going to have to give me a bit more to work with, lad, I’m pretty confused.”

Henry pulled the pillow from his face to dramatically groan, “I am too, Killian, why do you think I asked you? What’s the point of adults if they can’t explain things to you??”

Killian gave him the eyebrow for that comment. “Was that last bit really necessary?”

“No,” Henry grumbled.

“Even if I don’t have a magic answer, I can still help you talk it out, if you’re willing to actually do your part and talk, lad.”

Henry put down the pillow. “I hate it when you’re right.”

*~*

And as much as he wanted to explain what was going on to Killian, it was hard to put it into words.

Henry thought on it for a while, trying to pull together something that made sense, before deciding that maybe just letting the words spill out naturally might be more productive – at least it would give them a place to start.

“So, as I think you and Mom have noticed, I’m not really interested in dating right now.”

“Right,” Killian agreed.

Henry bit his lip nervously. “I’m starting to think that I might not…ever be interested.”

Killian kept quiet, so Henry stumbled on. “Like, reading about romance and sex and stuff is fine, and listening to my friends talk about it is fine, if a little boring, but the idea of it happening to me is just…really scary. I don’t ever really see it happening – like, ever, and I know that’s…weird. And so I just…I’m really nervous about this thing with Grace, because what if she gets the wrong idea? What if I accidentally lead her on? But I also don’t know that I can properly…express what’s going on in my head without offending her, you know? And I really appreciate her friendship, I don’t want to mess it up, but I don’t know what to do to maintain it but also explain it to her without being a jerk.”

He finally looked up at Killian. “What the heck do I even do?”

Surprisingly, Killian smiled reassuringly and said pretty much the very last thing Henry had expected him to say: “I know exactly what you need to do – you need to talk to your mom about this.”

Henry just stared at him, thrown by the apparent non sequitur. “Seriously?”

Killian just kept smiling. “Seriously. She’ll be a lot more helpful than I could ever be, and let’s just say…she wouldn’t appreciate me stepping in to tell you some of what she’s going to say. It’ll be good for both of you. Now go get ready for bed, and I’ll send her in to talk to you when she gets home.”

As Henry got up to leave, Killian came over and gave him a hug. “I know it feels like the end of the world, lad, but I promise you that no matter what, your mom and I are here for you – dating, not dating now, never dating ever, whatever; we love you just the way you are. Alright?”

Henry hugged him back, hard, and sniffled out his agreement before running into his room, leaving Killian to internally breathe a sigh of relief that he hadn’t entirely messed that up; now he just needed to give Emma the heads up to finish the job properly. She could do that.

*~*

“Killian, I can’t do this,” Emma mumbled, eyes huge with her nerves. The door to Henry’s room that looked a lot more foreboding than usual. “I’m going to mess this up so badly, oh my god, whose idea was this!?”

Killian just gave her a hug. “Love, you know that you need to do this. It’s going to be scary, it could be difficult, but Henry is your son and he deserves to hear this from you rather than me.” He paused to let her reply, but after the continuing silence, he knew she needed just one more little push. So he sighed and released her, heading towards the door, adding, “Or, if it’s really too much, I can do it, you can go to bed –”

But he didn’t even get two steps before she grabbed his arm, eyes blazing. “And who said it was too much?”

He just smiled down at her, his amazing Swan, and kissed her forehead. “You just did, but hey, good to see you’re confident again.”

Emma bit her lip, almost exactly like Henry had earlier. “And you think this will work?”

Killian smiled. “I’m sure, love.”

Emma took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m going in.”

*~*

Emma had always been a loner, growing up the way she did, so romance and sex had been foreign concepts to her – until Neal swept into her life and swept her off her feet. She thought she was in love with him. Despite that, Emma was nervous about having sex with him and kept putting it off. But after she told Neal she loved him, he scoffed at her. “Babe, if you really loved me, you’d have sex with me.”

Well, Emma thought she loved him, so she did. Big mistake. It hurt, she was scared, he thought her nails clawing at his back meant she was into it (even though it was quite the opposite) – but he was so happy and mellow after he came, cuddling her for as long as she wanted and not complaining. The comfort afterwards was worth the discomfort beforehand, Emma decided.

After she found out that she was pregnant and decided to keep the baby, Neal ran off – abandoning her when she needed him most. Once she moved to Storybrooke to be closer to what little family she had left, she swore off love and any sort of meaningful sex. The few times she did get the itch after Neal, she had one-night stands at bars in nearby towns. There, she was in charge – no longer a starry-eyed fool, but a wily wolf who knew how to separate her prey from the pack and take what she needed before escaping out the door and back to her daily life. Mary Margaret insisted on blind dates after a while, but scaring them off had become easy with practice – no worries there about any inconvenient attachments forming.

Graham hadn’t even been on her radar, but after that invasion of her personal space and misreading of her fairly obvious signals, she started to wonder what the hell was the point – she only ever attracted selfish, obsessive men, and that was no kind of partner to have and certainly no role model for Henry.

Then she had her blind date with Killian. She had daydreamed a few times about what it would be like to date Killian, romanticizing it all before reminding herself that with her luck, Killian would be just like her other bad experiences. Except that he wasn’t.

He absolutely threw her for a loop. She got happy butterflies around him, not just nervous ones like she did with Neal; he respected her personal space and (admittedly strict) boundaries without any hesitation, slowly earning her trust and her heart and seeming to simply enjoy the privilege rather than seeking to rush her in any way. Emma had to admit, his gentlemanly manner was sweeping her off her feet, old-fashioned as it may have been. (But then again, what woman doesn’t imagine Mr. Darcy suddenly appearing in her life? Emma could personally attest that the sight of Killian, dripping wet in a big white floofy shirt, was definitely drool-worthy and worth remembering. Luckily she had snapped a picture before he had noticed her phone was out.)

He had never once pressured her to have sex, and when she confessed what Neal had done Killian’s fiery glare had startled her with its intensity. “No one,” he snarled, “should call themselves a human being after forcing someone to have sex with them, whatever pretty lies they might make you swallow first to get you to agree. That makes Neal the lowest of the low, love, and while I’m not sure that you’re going to believe me now, I swear: it wasn’t your fault, you didn’t deserve it, and he deserves punishment for doing that to you, for betraying your trust in that way.”

Emma had cried a lot that night – some tears out of pain, with all the bad memories she had stirred up in telling her story, but mostly out of relief and joy after hearing Killian’s words.

Now, years later, it was time to do for her son what Killian had done for her: offer understanding, love and unwavering support.

*~*

When she walked into his room, Henry was propped up in bed on his phone, typing away – maybe texting a friend, maybe working on that story she wasn’t supposed to have any idea he was writing. Whatever the case, he put down his phone as she sat on his bed. “So. Killian said you have something to talk to me about.”

Henry sighed. “Grace asked me to the Sadie Hawkins Valentine’s Day dance in two weeks. And I said yes, but…I don’t want to date Grace. She’s a great friend, and I’m happy to go to the dance as friends, but definitely not if this is a date. And how do I explain all of that to her without being rude, especially when I’ve already said I’ll go without clarifying anything?”

Emma blinked. That was a lot simpler than she had expected. So she prodded a bit more. “That’s it?”

Henry hesitated. Emma noticed and let him take his time. “Mom, I…I don’t think I ever want to date. Like, anyone. Not because I like boys or anything,” he hurried on, still a little surprised by the tack Killian had taken earlier and not wanting his mom to go down the same road. “I just…don’t feel like that’s something I’m comfortable with. Definitely not yet, and…probably not ever. And I just feel…”

“Different?” Emma completed softly.

“Broken.” Henry sobbed.

“Oh, honey, no,” Emma crooned as she swept him into a hug. “I promise, you’re not broken. I should know.”

Henry looked up at her. “Really?”

Emma smiled back. “Yeah. I’m not exactly like you, and the story of me finding out isn’t the lightest topic, but yeah.”

“Can you tell me anyway?” Henry asked.

“Sure thing, kid. Your dad and I had a…difficult relationship –”

“You told me this part already,” Henry interrupted. “He ran away when you decided to have me.”

“Well. That was the simple version. In reality…” She hesitated. “You’ve had health class, right?”

“Duh, mom.”

“Okay, okay,” she laughed, “just checking. Did they talk to you about consent?”

Henry frowned. “Yes means yes, no means no.”

Emma sighed. “Sometimes it’s not that simple, kid. You know how when Grace asked you to the dance, you said yes even though you really didn’t want to?”

“Yeah…”

“Sometimes, I would say yes to things your dad asked for, even though I also didn’t want to. And that’s where consent can get…complicated. See, I was telling your dad yes, even though I would be unhappy later, and he knew I would be unhappy later, but he wanted…things more than he wanted me to be happy later. So even though I was technically consenting, I wasn’t happy about it – just like you’re not exactly happy about going to the dance with Grace. Right?”

Henry blinked at her. “…But that doesn’t mean Grace asking me to the dance and what my dad did to you are the same thing, right?”

Emma was quick to reassure him. “Definitely not, Henry, one instance of asking someone who’s not super excited to go to a dance is very different than a pattern of ignoring another person’s wishes just to please yourself, I promise.”

“Good.”

“Yeah.” Emma forged onward. “So anyway, after your dad left, I started doing some research about why I was so hesitant to do…things, when so many people around me were perfectly fine doing them.”

“Oh,” Henry said softly. “Like me.”

“Yep. I found this website called AVEN - the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network.”

“Asexuality?” Henry asked.

“Of course asexuality didn’t get covered in health class,” Emma groaned. “Okay. So you know how some people are attracted to their own gender, versus another gender? Homoseuxal versus heterosexual?”

“Right,” Henry agreed, “and some people are attracted to multiple – bisexual or pansexual.”

“Right,” Emma agreed. “And some people are attracted to neither their gender or another gender; they aren’t attracted to anyone – asexual.”

Henry nodded.

“So, asexuality is a spectrum – there’s a lot of different ways to be asexual. I’m graysexual, meaning that I’m very rarely attracted to people – or, at least, sexually attracted to people.”

Henry wrinkled his nose. “Ew, I don’t want to hear about it, Mom –”

“Yes you do, kid, just be patient, I’m getting there. What I was about to say is that just like there’s lots of different sexual identities – the ones we just mentioned – you can also apply those terms to romantic attraction.”

Henry snapped his mouth shut.

“Yeah – so even though I’m graysexual, I’m heteroromantic, meaning I’m romantically attracted to men. But you can also be biromantic, homoromantic –”

“Ace-romantic?” Henry interrupted.

“Aromantic,” Emma laughed, “But basically, yeah. Not romantically attracted to anyone.”

Henry beamed. “That sounds like me!”

Emma ruffled his hair. “Pretty sure it is, kid. I will say, as exciting as it is to know who you are, I’d be careful telling too many kids at school, okay? It’s hard to be different when you’re still growing up, and some people might hear that you’re not like them and get really mean –”

“I know, Mom, I’ll be careful.” Henry promised.

Emma kissed the top of his head. “Do you want me to send you some links to read through, about aromanticism?” she asked.

Henry yawned and snuggled down under the covers. “Yeah, I’d like to take a look at them later.” But then he immediately shot up. “Crap! I still have to explain to Grace that I just want to go as friends without hurting her feelings!”

Emma just laughed. “Go to bed for now, and you can ask Killian about it in the morning – he’ll know a lot more about what to say than I will.”

Henry got back in bed. “Yeah,” he yawned, “you’re right. G’nite, Mom – and tell Killian I said g’nite too. And that I’ll be asking him tomorrow morning.”

“I will,” Emma promised as she left the room.

Killian, of course, was standing right outside. “Way to throw me under the bus, lass,” he teased before giving her a kiss.

Emma kissed him back, so grateful that he was in her and Henry’s lives. “You’re the best, you know that?”

Killian smirked. “Why yes, yes I do.”

Emma laughed. “Get in bed, you dork.”

“As you wish,” Killian replied as he headed to their room.

Emma smiled. She and Henry really were lucky that Killian had agreed to be his babysitter what felt like a million years ago. She wouldn’t give up what they had now for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Emma is pretty certain that Henry’s an aegoromantic ace. Henry, however, prefers to say that’s he’s aspec, rather than choosing any too-confining labels. Killian just laughs at his Swan’s need to categorize everything and distracts her when Henry starts to get too annoyed with her pushing him to explore the labels available to him – Killian knows that Henry doesn’t want to yet, and Emma doesn’t understand his desire to just be rather than find all the answers he can; but Killian does.


End file.
